Zhui Ye had never felt the uphill road home was this long before.

He even began to regret why he had chosen not to drive—at least then he wouldn’t be burning with anxiety.

…But if they had a car, perhaps they couldn’t wait to get home.

While thinking wildly and enduring, feeling like a century had passed, he finally saw the familiar house. He took out his keys early, fumbling through his pants pocket finding a pile of things—tissues, candy, headphones…just couldn’t find that crucial small handle.

He really wanted to turn his pockets inside out right then, but that would be somewhat embarrassing, equivalent to writing the words “lustful urgency” openly on his forehead.

So he very restrainedly, pretending to be casual, reached into his pocket to rummage.

However, the person beside him couldn’t help but reach directly in, diving into his pocket, fingers tangling together with his, hooking and pulling out that set of keys.

Wu Man glanced at him, silently saying, “So slow.”

With a snap, this soundless sound violently burned through Zhui Ye.

The moment the door opened, he pulled the person impatiently upstairs, while tugging at Wu Man’s obstructive thin knit cardigan. The yarn ball created static electricity as the two pressed close together. Pulling off from the arms, it crackled loudly. The tiny electric current was like a thunderstorm, wildly coursing through their eyes.

In their vision, only each other seemed to remain. Wu Man thus misjudged even the steps under her feet, stumbling and nearly twisting her ankle. Zhui Ye simply scooped her up, hands supporting the base of her legs, looking up at her in this posture all the way into the room.

Just stepping in, Wu Man, elevated high, immediately saw the single bed with an extremely strong presence in the room.

Her back suddenly shivered. The image of young Zhui Ye lying on the bed inexplicably floated before her eyes. This made her feel unreasonably ashamed yet unspeakably excited.

Here? She held the back of Zhui Ye’s head, leaning to his ear asking breathily.

Zhui Ye didn’t make a sound. He saw roughly the same image as her—his teenage self lying bare on the bed, also this season. But what he thought of was completely different.

He thought of how he would bury his head under the covers. Not yet summer, but the thin blanket was already as hot as a volcano bursting with lava. He recalled Wu Man from the movie, her cheeks like cherry-flavored mochi just taken from the freezer, the pink ice skin still wrapped in a layer of frost. His gaze traveled downward, from the qipao revealing glimpses of pale white legs, like snowmelt freshly melted from snow mountains.

The colder the recalled images, the more scorching his throat, forcing the young him to let out irrepressible gasps.

And at this moment, the meltwater flowed into his embrace, soaking him.

Wu Man helped him remove his sweaty shirt. His back faced the window under moonlight, emanating a beautiful luster that made her involuntarily think of a cheetah with sleek fur on the plains—taut, dangerous, yet captivating.

She casually tossed his shirt toward that narrow little bed, but the angle was off—half landed on the bed, the other half pitifully dragging on the floor.

This normally wouldn’t matter, but Zhui Ye suddenly took issue, lightly pinching her chin saying, “Elder Sister dirtied my clothes.” As if with some punitive meaning, hot breath spraying toward her ear. “How should you compensate me?”

Wu Man was finally put down by him, but deliberately placed on the half-clothed position. Beneath her was his clothing, above her was him. Fragile like a small beast falling into a trap dug by the cheetah, airtightly shackled.

This was a rare moment after Zhui Ye got together with her when he unabashedly displayed his aggressiveness. Especially today.

…It must be because of this room.

Actually, wasn’t she the same? Deliberately getting mischievous ideas, teasing him, slowly pulling out a cigarette from her pants pocket, placing it between Zhui Ye’s lips.

“Compensate you with this?”

He bit the cigarette, smiling unclearly. “Not enough.”

They silently gazed at each other for a few seconds. Outside the window, insect chirping from the mountain night vaguely echoed, seeming noisy. She suddenly looked back at the window by the headboard. “Is it not closed tight?”

Zhui Ye couldn’t bear it anymore and turned her face back, pressing her down in one motion.

“Haven’t checked the window yet…”

Her half sentence was swallowed into a fierce kiss. The young man’s assault softened in the latter half, turning to kiss her nose tip saying, “Behind the window is just the mountain. Except for the mountain god, no one will see us.”

Wu Man thus saw, between the young man’s rising and falling curves, squeezed in glimpses toward the window. Heaven and earth solemn, in the pitch-black continuous mountain tree shadows seemed to hide countless spying eyes.

Since the divine had eyes everywhere, closing the window was useless. She might as well close her eyes and turn a blind eye.

When both were exhausted to the point of collapse, they finally remembered the neglected cigarette.

They lazily squeezed on the single bed not wanting to move, feet unable to spread, their calves touching each other. Wu Man pillowed on Zhui Ye’s shoulder, witnessing him magic-trick the cigarette from who-knows-where back into his mouth.

He barely half-sat up, straightening one arm to reach for the pants that had been thrown onto the concrete floor during the process, the other hand still sporadically pinching the soft flesh on her waist that was about to be bitten into bruises.

Wu Man slapped away his hand, humming lightly, “Itchy.”

Zhui Ye smiled, his palm still relentlessly pressing, the hand reaching for the pants finally arduously finding the lighter in the pocket, igniting that crumpled cigarette.

“Want a drag?”

He exhaled a wisp of smoke ring, turning toward Wu Man.

She raised her chin, slightly parting her lips, indicating for him to pass the cigarette over.

Zhui Ye’s fingertips pinched away the cigarette, but his head leaned over, scattering an entire unexhaled smoke ring into her mouth. Not all contained, a few wisps escaped, drifting out the window.

Her gaze followed the smoke drifting out, seeing white mist also beginning to rise on the back mountain. Insect chirping fell silent—morning was about to come.

After changing the sheets and bathing, the sky had already brightened, but Zhui Ye still drowsily pillowed on the sunlight and slept for a few hours.

A single bed squeezing two adults should be very cramped, yet he felt no confinement throughout. His hand unconsciously touched the bed, only then discovering no one beside him.

This immediately startled him awake.

Without even putting on a shirt, he panicked and ran barefoot out the door, shocked by the sea of flowers on the terrace.

Wu Man was bent over, moving flower pots from the ground one by one onto the already-empty flower rack. She moved very attentively, her calves and arms scattered with fallen dirt particles.

Zhui Ye’s Adam’s apple rolled, calling out, “Elder Sister.”

Wu Man stopped moving, turned to glance at him. “Awake?”

“You didn’t sleep?”

“Couldn’t sleep anymore, so I just got up to fiddle with these. So empty looked no good.” She frowned. “Quickly go back and put on your shirt. You’ll catch cold.”

He obediently nodded as told, returning to the room. Standing by the window while putting on clothes, he couldn’t bear to miss a single glance as he gazed at the terrace.

The window had old-fashioned carved patterns, uneven, making even the distant figure and flower pots display a kind of blurry beauty. But everything was so real, telling him not to fear waking from dreams, because the terrace had been replanted with flowers of all seasons. It would bloom from now on, never withering.

After lunch, in the warm sunny afternoon, they set out to climb higher up the mountain.

On the mountain were many private graves, and among them was one place where Zhui Ye’s parents were buried.

Zhui Ye brought her before the grave. Although he couldn’t come often, he had someone maintain it regularly, so it was full of fresh flowers, clean and tidy. Behind the grave was a century-old tree, the large expanse of green shade it dropped sheltering them, whether from scorching sun or wind, it blocked them all.

The two offered newly bought flower bouquets, preparing to complete a simple wedding ceremony here. Perhaps it would frighten people to say it—this was a wedding set up before a gravesite. Not a ghost marriage, yet it seemed to mysteriously connect with their first meeting.

Perhaps, fate truly existed in this world.

They knelt side by side, knees pressing on the hard ground, performing the very ancient ceremony—first bow to heaven and earth, second bow to parents, third bow to each other as husband and wife.

They wanted everything approaching eternity in this world to witness for them—new buds sprouting from branches, wild grass still tenacious after being trampled, stones whose edges had not yet been weathered smooth by wind, breezes, blue sky, white clouds, departed relatives whose love endured forever.

“Dad, Mom, let me solemnly introduce you. This is your daughter-in-law.”

Zhui Ye took her hand, proudly introducing her to the tombstone.

“I finally met the girl I’d rather vomit than not want to make happy. She’s not a perfect person, has many flaws, specifically what they are…” He glanced at the person beside him’s expression and silently swallowed his words back. “But, I’m also not a perfect person. I also have many flaws. However, when she and I are together, we both slowly become better.”

Wu Man bowed deeply to the tombstone again.

“Thank you both. I’ll help take care of this troublesome child.”

Zhui Ye wrinkled his nose with some grievance, muttering, “Then I’ll trouble my wife.”

Wind shook the tree leaves, and the tree shadow reflected on the tombstone also swayed, as if the people in the photo were responding to them.

They left the mountaintop, preparing to drive through the night back to Beijing that evening.

There were still two or three hours before sunset. They still decided to stroll around the town center. This stroll took them to the zoo Zhui Ye used to love visiting most.

From afar, he saw that sign. The originally bright red paint had faded to orange-red, the font retaining the dirt from wind and rain. So his footsteps slowed, both nostalgic yet not daring to approach.

Because on his birthday, he and his parents should have come here after dinner.

This place would also evoke the terror of that time, making the collapse of old days replay.

She perceptively wanted to pull him away, but he stood in place for a while, saying, “Want to go in and look around?”

“Can you?”

“Of course. I’m no longer afraid of merry-go-rounds, just like Elder Sister is no longer afraid of riding in cars. As long as you’re beside me, I can go anywhere.”

After speaking, he walked straight toward the unattended ticket window, calmly buying two adult tickets.

Qingling’s zoo was very fresh over ten years ago, but after these years, foot traffic was far less than before. Everyone had grown tired of those animals. The park also had no funds to introduce other animals, and the old ones—the sick ones got sick, the dead ones died. What remained that could still be viewed was probably just an aquarium, which was also the zoo’s original signature attraction.

So they walked past empty exhibition halls along the way, heading straight there.

Inside the aquarium were still a few children and adults, wildly running through the water-blue corridor, excitedly shrieking. Zhui Ye seemingly casually said, “Children are still quite noisy. A day would give quite a headache. Good thing we won’t have children.”

Looking like he avoided them like the plague.

Wu Man teased him, “Maybe when you were little you were even noisier than them.”

“But at least I was cuter than them!”

Wu Man recalled the pink and jade-carved little boy in the family photo and honestly nodded. “That’s true.”

Zhui Ye cheered up, mouth corners lifting in a foolish smile that, in her view, really had no difference compared to those children’s childishness.

At the very beginning of the aquarium, both side walls had built-in water tanks containing various colored jellyfish. They contracted and expanded in the deep blue water. Wu Man moved close to carefully observe their movement paths, her nose tip almost touching the glass.

Zhui Ye extended his head from behind, chin resting on her shoulder.

Wu Man saw this vague scene in the glass reflection and couldn’t help feeling a bit dazed.

He blinked. “Feel like déjà vu?”

Wu Man laughed. “Looks like our Chen Nan has grown up.”

This was years ago, the first day they filmed on location in Guangzhou.

And in front of the water tank, their first kiss happened.

“Am I too late coming to find Elder Sister now?”

The two suddenly very tacitly acted out a scene in front of the water tank.

“Too late.” Wu Man put on a regretful expression. “Just that little bit too late. Just an hour ago, I finished getting married to another man.”

Zhui Ye’s expression darkened, vaguely still showing that impulsive energy of Chen Nan.

“Which man?! Is he better than me!”

She pondered a while and said, “Hmm… he’s about the same age as you, just two years older. Looks about the same as you too.” Just getting halfway through, she couldn’t hold it anymore and quickly raised her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, if I say more, Deng Lizhi will strangle me. How dare I refuse her precious Chen Nan and marry a ‘wild’ man.”

She meaningfully emphasized the character “ye” (wild), but Zhui Ye suddenly asked a divergent question.

“Do you think Chen Nan will go back to find Deng Lizhi four years later? I asked Director Wang at the time. He said, you are Chen Nan—what do you think? I answered that I didn’t know.”

Wu Man asked curiously, “So what do you think now?”

He was stunned for a while, then suddenly shook his head.

“It’s not important anymore. I hope he’ll go back to find her. He definitely will.”

Wu Man closed her eyes, gently leaning back on his shoulder, thinking inwardly, this was such a very Zhui Ye answer. Just like how he crossed a decade of time to seek her. The world’s complex complications and changed circumstances were to him nothing but a drop in the ocean, because he was forever sincere, forever passionate, forever young.

She replied, “I also think it’s not important anymore. That she could meet Chen Nan was already the luckiest thing in her life. Whether Chen Nan comes back or not, Deng Lizhi has already returned from the abyss of loneliness.”

They walked to the deepest part of the aquarium. Here was a huge water tank with a dolphin swimming freely inside. Right beside was a staff member’s small stall selling dolphin plushies, exactly the same as over ten years ago, without any improvement.

Yet Wu Man wandered to the stall and carried back a plushie.

“Let’s hold it and take a photo in roughly the same pose as the family portrait!”

Zhui Ye made a sound of acknowledgment, saying, “Okay.”

As he spoke, he raised both hands to grab her neck as if wanting to jump up. Wu Man was dumbfounded. “What are you doing?”

“My posture at the time was riding on my dad’s head.”

“…I mean I’ll put the plushie on your head making a little branch gesture!”

Zhui Ye pouted, pretending sudden realization. “Oh! That’s what you meant!”

The beauty was speechless.

Finally, with the staff’s help, they froze a photo.

The photo’s background was still the aquarium’s aged ocean, but the people in the foreground were different. The boy had grown into a man, with a brand-new plushie doll on his head. And the woman placing the doll on his head had rich love between her brows and eyes. She didn’t look at the camera but at him. The shutter in that instant only captured her profile.

This wasn’t Wu Man’s intention. She had wanted to seriously face the camera straight on, but in that instant, possessed by something, she turned her head to glance at Zhui Ye. Just this one stolen glance was mercilessly caught by the camera.

She clamored to retake it, but Zhui Ye was very satisfied with this accidentally captured one and treasured it.

After returning to Beijing, he used this photo as their wedding photo, framing it at the headboard of their bedroom, and separated out a small copy to stick on the RV.

Wu Man pulled out this photo from five years ago to show Xiao Han, saying, “This was taken at the place we’re going to. Do you like aquariums? If you like, we’ll take you again.”

Xiao Han touched the photo, asking curiously, “Aquarium, is it a place with lots of fish, right?”

“Right, lots of fish, and jellyfish, starfish… have you seen Finding Nemo? There are clownfish too.”

Xiao Han listened to Wu Man’s explanation, somewhat embarrassed to speak. She felt there were too many things she didn’t understand.

“What’s Finding Nemo…?”

Wu Man patiently explained, “That’s an animated movie. No worries, it is indeed quite an old film. Next time we’ll take you to watch it.”

Xiao Han’s eyes brightened. “Okay!”

She had never seen a movie before. But if she said this too, that would be really too embarrassing. She lowered her head thinking.

Zhui Ye interjected at this time, “Xiao Han, you definitely haven’t seen ‘Spring Night’ either, right?”

“…Spring Night?”

The girl voiced out innocently. Wu Man hurriedly reached across her to cover his mouth.

“Don’t listen to his nonsense. You’re not suitable to watch that yet. Wait until you’re a bit older.”

Zhui Ye still stubbornly mumbled under her palm, “Who says? ‘Spring Night’ is an unprecedented and unparalleled excellent film that men, women, old and young cannot miss…”

“Shut up!”

She directly pinched his upper and lower lips together, completely silencing him, the corners of her mouth floating with a faint smile.

On the desolate highway, the sun—this fried egg—was cooked through and eaten bite by bite by the night sky. The grayish-blue tablecloth was laid out. Between heaven and earth, gradually only their car’s headlights remained.

Wu Man feared Zhui Ye was too tired from driving all day and exchanged positions with him. During the stop, they hid from Xiao Han with difficulty, squatting in the grass to smoke two cigarettes, taking the opportunity to exchange a tobacco-flavored kiss.

The night car set off again. Zhui Ye sat in the passenger seat and opened the window, wanting the smoke smell to dissipate. Wild wind rushed into the cabin, disheveling all three people’s hair.

In the gentle wind sounds, Xiao Han heard another very clear instrument sound. This one she finally recognized—it was a harmonica.

Zhui Ye took out a harmonica from the drawer, skillfully playing a melodious song.

Wu Man’s fingers tapped the beat on the steering wheel while softly harmonizing, “The setting sun shines on my little jasmine, the sea breeze blows her hair… all the whispers under the moon are asleep, my jasmine also slept, send her a beautiful dream, so she won’t forget me…”

Xiao Han couldn’t sing, foolishly swaying her head to the melody.

Three people in one car simultaneously raised their heads, looking through the windshield toward the high-hanging night sky. Tonight was a very round full moon—they would definitely have a gentle beautiful dream.

Wake from one sleep, and they’d quickly be not far from home.

Night Train (End)

—

Author’s Note:

Night Train is also concluded here. There will be one or two more epilogue chapters and then the full text will be complete. I’ll see at the time whether to release it all in one Falling Into Spring Night – Chapter or separately, depending on the writing speed. Thank you everyone.